The Triplets of Belleville

That's my opinion. The animation is glorious and unique. I can't wait for Sylvain's next movie.

The film is far too long, at 90 minutes. It could have been greatly heightened by being cut in ½, or preferably to 1/3 its length. It suffers from what much of silent films suffer from, in retrospect. The propulsion of the narrative by broad sweeping gestures is innately heightening, condensing, therefore many of the scenes later on, in the film, become mere recapitulations of earlier scenes whose points were made. Such concision invites imbuement, not explanation, & while the purpose of the tale is never explained, too many needless little bits of exposition are- such as Bruno's dream, or the montage showing the extended oddities of the triplets, since, just 1 look at them, & 1 instance adequately set them up as weirdos we feel something for.

Many critics have pointed out that the film has many layers of throwaway references & tweaks- be it comments on Hollywood & organized crime's financial connections, to pot shots taken at Walt Disney, to homages to obscure cartoon stars of the Great Depression. These may all be true, & heighten the film to its lovers, but to impartial tastes they tend to distract from the overall thrust of the film, which has many virtues- focus not being 1 of them.
As for the DVD, there are requisite making of films & a commentary, but anyone expecting any deeper explication of the film itself will be disappointed. Yet, that's a good thing for, flawed as it is, The Triplets Of Belleville deserves accolades for at least trying to be something unique. That it won an Oscar for it is more of a comment on what its competition lacked than what it possessed. Which may be, in retrospect, the very point of Madame Souza's devotion to her grandson, & why so many people connected with it.

This was a gift. It shipped on time for my sister's birthday. She said the DVD worked.

I loved it! Not a word of dialogue (of any note) in it, weird, innovative and an absolute joy! I stumbled across it in our local library and took a chance on it. It is now part of our collection. Clearly life is worth a risk or two :-)

There is a foot-tappping melody in there that had us humming for days afterwards, like a secret joke or "ren-dez-voooos".

I would advise the original French version for authenticity and effect. Enjoy!

I caught this movie on an premium channel (Showtime, HBO, Stars, whatever) and I was confused the entire time. I had the same feeling when I was forced to watch Run Lola Run.

If you like obtuse French art-house animation, then I guess you'd like this movie. If you like things that make sense and are slightly less French, then I would not recommend it. It was just too purposely art-sy for my taste. You can achieve the same effect by choosing a random traditional animation off of AtomFilms, adjusting your color settings until your monitor looks like an old sepia-washed post Victorian portrait, with musette/Cajun music in the background while sniffing markers.

Though two years of art school helps too.